Q&A

The question had to be asked
but no one wanted to answer
no one wanted the answer
so we all fiddled with our pens and
stared out the window -
the sky was crisp and blue,
a hint of azure at the edges -
ignorance was our hiding place,
its warm glow protected us
and under its radiator
we laughed and played
while the question [...]

i am impassioned

I am impassioned…
I am impassioned by your criticism
it’s driven me in the right direction –
it is a map by which I
plan my next move –
as long as I am nowhere near
I know I’m there.
You understand as little as I do -
Your ignorance is clear to me so
I fail to understand your feelings of superiority

somehow

somehow,
in the tangle of thread,
that tenuous weave woven through human existence
and the relationships that bind us,
I found you
you found me
and now
we are fastened inside a growing tapestry
of exotic colours
dancing
like a psychedelic kaleidoscope

dad 2001

i thought about You today
and the memory
  drifted through me:
there were no scars left this time,
just a sense of disassociation,
the strange realization that
you’re not here anymore;
not anywhere…
You were so big
almost bearlike, it seemed, at times
(perhaps not when you slept in front of the TV,
the cat curled up in the soft bulge of your tummy).
your large presence [...]

shan poem 2

I love this little girl she
wraps herself in blankets when no one can see she
uncurls her toes and makes me
rub her feet she
kisses me in the morning and makes me tea she
rubs her nose and she
loves
me

Love poem

Love poem
I love living in the gut of the city
with the rumble of traffic
static
morals elastic
smoke and fire tumbling over my wall
bums always knocking at my door
not to sure if I should ignore
them
house thumping from my neighbours
garden full of papers
cats prowling in the garden
TV’s all I’ve got to hide in

shan’s poem

You are my dream
            machine
you make me lean
 
You are my Lear Jet
You are my Jet set
You are my dream
            machine
you make me lean
 
You are my disco queen
You are my Opium
You are my dream
            machine
you make me lean
 
You are my sweet basil pesto dish
 So scrumptious and delish
You are my dream
            machine
you make me lean
 
and when you [...]

June 1998

Driving through the Karoo
you
slide gently into sleep
and the blue covers me,
smothers me -
the grey road, crumbling asphalt,
perfectly framed in the greasy window:
seems to be an intrusion,
a distraction from the soft enticing comfort of dreams
dancing at the edge of conciousness

the ants

a colony of ants
has invaded our garden,
built it’s cities, its civilization,
beneath our rotting floorboards,
between the cracks in the croncrete’s crumbling foundations and
faulty electric cables.
It is an insect revolution -
no noise, rhetoric, armies,
treason, betrayal -
silent and insidious
they have forged their nation in human rot

you

you speak love
when you sleep,
when I slipstumble
into bed
and wrap myself around you:
brush you hair,
kiss your neck
squeeze your tit